Here is an effective practical meditation regimen

Get up an early an hour earlier than usual and determine to keep this up for six weeks in order to give the practices a fair trial. Wash the hands and feet on rising, stretch all over and then sit in the meditation posture or as near as you can get it, facing the east. Read something meaningful from a traditional holy scripture for five minutes slowly, then breathe deeply five times. Pranayama – breathing practice: Bunch the fingers and press them for a few seconds on the abdomen just below the navel. Take them away, and then use the aftersensation to focus the mind there.

Now breathe in deeply, without strain. Feel that the breath is coming in at the navel, and rising in a column of light up the centre line of the body; it reaches the spot between the eyebrows at the end of the breath. Of course, the physical breath does not in fact come in at the navel. But an easy way to become aware of the central vital current, is to associate it with the movement of breath. The action is something like drawing up milk through a straw; here it is drawing up light.

On the out-breath, visualisation is dropped. Mind rests. Then with the next in-breath, make the visualisation again. Do this twenty-one times. Count on the fingers, or finger joints, or make twenty-one knots in a piece of string and use like a rosary. The breath should be deep and slow, but not strained. With facility, it lengthens naturally; the exercise can last six or seven minutes. Line of light practice.

Madhyam practice

Draw an imaginary line of light from the top of the forehead, down between the eyebrows, down the nose, lips, throat, heart-region to the navel. Imagine this line to be a line of light, and concentrate on it for ten minutes. In the beginning, you can draw your finger down the line, if it helps you to visualise it. Then sit and just think of this line of light. This is a very important practice, and is called the Madhyam practice. The results are not physiological, but relate to the vital energy, prana. If you do this practice every day, your mind will keep itself away from evils. To conquer passions, to overcome anger, pleasure- sense and pride, do this practice, and you will not be subject to the evil of anyone.

Meditation

Now, take a text for meditation and read it softly three times, then repeat it mentally three times more before you concentrate the mind on it.

OM In him, the heaven, the earth and the sky are all woven, the mind also with all the senses, know him alone as the Self and leave other thoughts. OM

With patience, support it in the mind, discarding without agitation interruptions from the senses or the mind itself. Remain calm in the meditation for 10 minutes.

Mantram Practice

At the end, repeat OM very slowly and softly, 108 times. Make 54 knots in a string and use it as a rosary going around it twice. Do it with reverence, knowing that it is the highest name of truth and of God. It does not matter whether you fully understand this practice or not. It has been hallowed by the great yogis of many thousands of years and will produce its effect. Finally, sit in the calm, which these practices will bring and give your friendliness and forgiveness to all. By this practice alone, most nervous and emotional illnesses will be healed. Return for another five minutes to the scripture with which you began. During the day, make a break about midday and again in the evening and in silence, return to the thought of the meditation for a minute or more.

Whenever you have nothing urgent to do, practise the line of light: In the evening, read one of the yogic texts (Upanishadic or the Bhagavad Gita) for a quarter of an hour.

Note:

The three vital practices are the madhyam practice, the meditation practice and the OM practice. All of the practices are approached in a spirit of reverence and ego-quietening humility. First of all, it is important to establish a rhythm of time, duration, posture and content of the set practices: your mind will prepare itself and anticipate the calm and vitalisation of the practices. Creation of the rhythm will allow for results of the practices to emerge in due course. While patient determination is undoubtedly needed to focus the mind and curb arising restless thoughts and distractions, will-power to control the mind and to rigidly maintain the form of the practices alone, can cause them to become dry. The power of imagination and the sense of reverence already discussed will enliven and deepen practise (meditation results, however, are not a matter of auto-suggestion or imagination but of something new).

The meditation session is not a time to consciously think about the concepts – which is usefully done later, after the meditation – but it is a special space of time when the mind,  in a receptive and responsive state, can be brought into contact with the spiritual knowledge, now unrecognised but always present, given out by the enlightened teachers and sages. It is in the quietened and clarified mind, free of hindrances and mental obstructions, that these inspirations may shine forth. But meditation is not simply a task to be carried out at one set time in the day; the vital meditation thoughts need to be brought to mind and refreshed during the day as part of the dynamic and ongoing exploratory and transformative process into the nature of oneself and the universe.

Self-study and enquiry into the writings of genuine enlightened sages, teachers and authentic sacred texts, together with the other disciplines (to be found in the great spiritual classics such as the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, the Ashtavakra Gita, Panchadasi, Patanjali Yoga Sutras, Viveka-Chudamani, the Naishkarmya Siddhi etc,) and dharmic thought and action are part of the inner training.

Whenever there is nothing urgent to do, such as waiting for transport, travelling, sitting in a waiting room etc.) it is a very good time to practise the line of light. Silent repetition of the chosen mantram, too, when established in good times through daily practise creates a sustained current to the thoughts and actions of the day and in times of distress or difficulty is a huge support and aid.

Keep these practices going intensively for six weeks and you will notice a difference in your life – maybe an unexpected cooling breeze in your soul. Once the art and skills of your meditation practice have matured and the truth-bearing nature of the meditation draws you (rather than the other way around) the order of the practices may vary and different texts and visualisations may be used according to the arising spiritual impressions and inspirations at different times of the day but stick to the chosen practices at the allotted meditation time. There are people who have done a particular text for many years and still find new and significant inspirations which arise from it.

Suggested meditation texts:

Mind practices:

OM O MY MIND FIND REST IN THAT MOST BLESSED PEACE THAT IS EVER WITHIN THEE AND FOLLOW NOT AFTER THAT WHICH IS TRANSIENT. OM

OM MY MIND RESTS IN CONTEMPLATION OF THE EVER-SHINING LIGHT IN MY SOUL. THAT LIGHT AM I. OM

Light/sun practices

OM IN ME THERE IS A LIGHT WHICH LIGHTS THE WHOLE WORLD. IT IS RADIATING NOW PEACE AND UNDERSTANDING. OM

OM HERE IN THIS BRIGHT SPACE WITHIN THE HEART IS HE, THAT SELF FORMED OF CONSCIOUSNESS, UNDYING, FULL OF LIGHT. OM

OM AS THE BUD OPENS TO THE DEW SO DOES MY INNER BEING TO RECEIVE THE LIGHT OF TRUTH. OM

Consciousness practices

OM IN HIM THE HEAVEN, THE EARTH AND THE SKY ARE WOVEN, THE MIND ALSO WITH ALL THE SENSES. KNOW HIM ALONE AS THE SELF, AND LEAVE OTHER THOUGHTS. OM

OM THE UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS IS IN ME AND I AM THAT. PEACE AND LOVE ARE MY ATTRIBUTES. OM

OM IN THE OCEAN OF LIMITLESS CONSCIOUSNESS I AM A WAVE. I AM REALITY, INFINITY AND BLISS. OM

OM I ABIDE IN THE INNERMOST HEART OF ALL. I AM THAT PERFECT CONSCIOUSNESS WHICH KNOWS NO COMING OR GOING. OM

Other practices

Prayer

OM O OCEAN OF LOVE, STILLNESS PROFOUND, LIGHT AND LIFE TO ALL WHO COME TO THEE, DRAW US INTO THY PEACE, THAT THE NOISE OF THINGS BE STILLED AND THE MUSIC OF THE SOUL BE ALL ONE NOTE – THYSELF ALONE, MY ATMAN, MY ALL. OM